This invention is particularly concerned with printer devices such as are utilized in connection with product delivery e.g. to retail stores. In a field known as route accounting, a computerized terminal maintains price and quantity information concerning various items to be delivered at a series of stores, and a printer unit is utilized to produce a printed record for each customer. The printer may be carried into each store with the terminal, or the printer may be part of the fixed equipment within a delivery vehicle.
In a typical route accounting system, a portable modular printer device may comprise a briefcase containing the printer unit. Preferably such portable systems have a receptacle for plug-in coupling of a computerized terminal.
In the past, systems providing an eighty column printing capacity have utilized portable configurations representing relatively high cost beyond the cost of the basic printer unit, and adding very substantially to the basic weight of the printer.
It is conceived that it would be highly beneficial to create a portable printer system requiring only minimal additions in terms of cost and weight over that of the basic printer. It would be ideal if a modular standardized construction could be applicable also to non-portable printer systems and capable of readily receiving computerized terminals of different configuration.